We hunted four times in the last couple weeks and weren't real satisfied with the results. We downed 100 our first time out in good conditions. 32 degrees, a light breeze and partly cloudy. Had a lull in the middle of the day before things picked up at around 2:00. We were stuck on 99, but determined to hit triple digits when the last crow in the county made a mistake. We've never ended a day with 99. 98, yes, but never 99.
The next morning the weather changed. 12 degrees and a WNW wind at 15-25. We were protected pretty good, but the shooting was slow and tough, so we quit after a couple hours with 14.
The next hunt was in a snowstorm and we thought we had everything we needed for a triple digit shoot, or at least close. We packed up cold, wet and miserable with 41. My back-up gun went in the case loaded. She was froze solid. Took three days to get stuff dried out. I had to let the Wingmasters thaw out for a half hour before I could get the magazine caps loosened and the barrels off.
Four days later on the 18th we made another run at them. It would be an afternoon hunt on staging crows. We'd scouted this group four times in six days, including the two evenings before the hunt. Never had they done the same thing. We determined we had the wind working for us and even if they varied a bit we'd have a good shoot. Outsmarted again. They shifted a full half mile and we were attempting to reach them through a 10-15 mph cross wind. We ended up with 45. On the bright side, we didn't educate very many, so hopefully we'll get our pay backs soon.
Doesn't look like it's going to get much above zero for a few days, so we'll hunker down, watch crows and scheme.
Didn't have a chance to get any interesting pictures, but here's a couple from the last hunt.
Love your decoy spread Randy. Getting them Deeks high off the ground in my opinion it is most of the battle. Six well-placed decoys 20 feet off the ground will produce better than 60 decoys on the ground as far as I’m concerned. One knows his decoy spread is working when a crow drifts in with no calling whilst you’re pouring a coffee or answering nature’s call!
Ted
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Life's tough... It's even tougher if you're stupid. John Wayne
Often when I'm hanging them, I think of what you once mentioned about dekes, Ted. "High and tight". (Also a good place for a fastball, by the way).
We don't often put any on the ground unless there are no brush or trees around. A lot of times there's too much ground cover for them to be visible anyway. I've cut the stakes off most of the full body Flambeau's and tied them together. Saves a lot of room in the bag.
A couple of hunts ago we had a 1/4 mile hike and it was too windy for the Boondockers. Just took one for the extension pole and after we had a few down, used Bob's trick of tying them together and pitched them into the top of the brush.
With that said, if there's foliage on the trees, a few on the ground may be the best option in some parts.
Good report, but reading about your wintertime details, I think I'll stay in the warm South for crow hunting!
Another Kudo for the decoy layout and, looking at your speaker being about 15' off the ground, that must be a major help with drawing them in. Great job.
Demi
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The man who thinks he can, and the man who thinks he can’t are both right.
Randy, I would not put any deks on the ground with heavy ground cover but not for the same reason as you. They would still see the deks from the air with heavy ground cover but it does not look natural in a feeding type of setup in my humble opinion.
In heavy cover the crows spot all the dead ones on the ground because they are in the air and you and I have a much different vantage point by being at ground level.
With the bitter cold temperatures and deep snow here in western Canada most of my hunting now has been curtailed. Watching a bit of Crowshooting on YouTube and can’t believe the number of guys with these ridiculous feeding set ups and dozens of decoys spread on the ground while blasting Crow fighting sounds. Totally unnatural. Almost comical if it were not such a faux pas. But I guess they do shoot their crows!
Ted
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Life's tough... It's even tougher if you're stupid. John Wayne
Good report, but reading about your wintertime details, I think I'll stay in the warm South for crow hunting!
Another Kudo for the decoy layout and, looking at your speaker being about 15' off the ground, that must be a major help with drawing them in. Great job.
Demi
Demi,
I'm often a bit envious of you guys that shoot in shirt sleeves. I've never swatted at an insect though. Or had to worry about reptiles and such.
We're running three speakers and get great coverage. The one on the pole can really reach out and an occasional ramp up of volume usually wakes something up. Didn't take long to learn not to run high volume very long, though. Unless you wanted every crow within earshot headed your way.
Randy, I would not put any deks on the ground with heavy ground cover but not for the same reason as you. They would still see the deks from the air with heavy ground cover but it does not look natural in a feeding type of setup in my humble opinion.
In heavy cover the crows spot all the dead ones on the ground because they are in the air and you and I have a much different vantage point by being at ground level.
Bob A.
All true Bob. But once they can see the dead ones in the grass, it's usually too late for them.
With the bitter cold temperatures and deep snow here in western Canada most of my hunting now has been curtailed. Watching a bit of Crowshooting on YouTube and can’t believe the number of guys with these ridiculous feeding set ups and dozens of decoys spread on the ground while blasting Crow fighting sounds. Totally unnatural. Almost comical if it were not such a faux pas. But I guess they do shoot their crows!
Ted
Ted,
I'd never want to tell anyone how to best hunt crows in their area and maybe they need dozens of decoys on the ground to get them to come in. However, I'm not fond of carrying more than I have to and a few well placed in the trees work quite well. If things are done right, there'll be crows on the ground in short order anyway.
An eyewitness account related to what you've watched: 7 am, first crow is heard. A quarter mile away crow fight starts blasting. Within a minute a thousand are circling three gunshots high over the call. Patience runs out and sky blasting commences. Nothing falls. Crow fight continues. Within a couple minutes another thousand are circling. Same result. This continued for most of an hour and if any crows were killed, we didn't see it.
There is a time and a place for high volume fighting calls, but educating them a thousand at a time isn't it.
I guess everyone has the their own way of hunting and having fun, so again, who am I to tell anyone how to shoot crows.
Randy, lots of crow educating going on these days by duffers. Everyone and their uncle John has an electronic unit. I notice this in the spring when I shoot birds coming north out of the Midwest into Canada. Typical foxpro sounds that worked wonders a decade ago scare crows away today. Sports getting more difficult and we have to adapt.
Ted
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Life's tough... It's even tougher if you're stupid. John Wayne
Our last hunt in Jan. was on the 29th. We downed 62 in a handful of spots. The day started a bit below zero and warmed to twenty by noon. It was still a bit chilly with the breeze from the SE @ 15 mph, but of the wind felt nice. We'd get downwind of a bunch and see what happened. Many were wary as heck but ran into some that cooperated quit well.
A lot will depend on the weather, but we're looking forward to hitting them hard in the next 4-6 weeks.
Sounds like they are still cooperating to a small degree for you Randy. Those late season birds get kinda tuff to respond. We've pretty much called it quits for the season here. I had a group of around 100 come floating thru my place a week ago, It looked like migrators headed north to me since we don't see groups like that around here. Get em while you can. Paul.
I liked your first hand “other hunter” experience of a 1000 circling birds and 3 shots. That is true and something I have experienced too. It also seems folks like that go out of their way to try and hunt in the tallest trees they can find. It makes me shake my head…
I liked your first hand “other hunter” experience of a 1000 circling birds and 3 shots. That is true and something I have experienced too. It also seems folks like that go out of their way to try and hunt in the tallest trees they can find. It makes me shake my head…
BH
Rookie mistake!
Ted
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Life's tough... It's even tougher if you're stupid. John Wayne
